Ads containing illustrations of incestuous and possibly underage sexual acts appeared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, last week.
X metrics indicate the post was seen by over 5.9 million viewers by the time of publication. It is possible that many of those who saw it were children.
The advertisements were placed by an account titled Coolmic EN Promotion. The ads were originally posted on April 30 but appear to have only made it to broader circulation over the last couple of weeks or so, as indicated by the sudden uptick in responses in mid-May.
The first in a four-part thread was titled “My First Time Is with… My Little Sister!? (¼).” It showed what appeared to be a young male walking in on a young female in the bathroom.
The second post in the thread contained several illustrations of the female in revealing clothing, with one showing her bare breasts and one illustration centered on the male’s clothed groin that appears to imply his sexual arousal. Other posts depicted much of the same content with a veiled depiction of sexual intercourse. The fourth and final post depicted masturbation and fellatio.
In each post, the lower male and female appendages were obliterated with a whiteout. However, it is unknown if they were similarly redacted if one clicked the links attached to each ad. The Dallas Express did not click on the links out of concerns over cyber security.
The number of impressions from users left on this post demonstrates the power of X’s advertising reach, given that the posting account only had 8,000 followers, many of whom appeared to be bots.
The responses to this post were mostly shock and outrage. The most liked response came from an account that tagged the rapper Drake: “@Drake, you see this?” This was probably a reference to a recent diss track from fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar that accuses Drake of pedophilia. Drake strongly denied such allegations in his response song.
Another well-liked comment came from a poster that used a clip of a Knights Templar cocking a shotgun and exclaiming, “Unacceptable.”
These posts likely did not violate any U.S. laws.
As Nadine Strossen, a First Amendment expert and law professor, told The Cowtown Caller podcast on a related examination of First Amendment law, child pornography laws are not violated unless they depict an “actual child.” However, despite the legality of these posts, there remain concerns about the potential appearance of this material in front of children, as well as adults who do not wish to see pornographic material on their feeds.
X was contacted for comment on this latest incident. In less than one minute, a representative responded, “Busy now, please check back later.”
X’s “sensitive media” policy addresses sexual content but does not address sexual advertising.